


How People Move

by bagua



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: College AU, F/F, Human AU, Peridot is a useless lesbian, Slow Burn, farming, slow build to relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-04-14 08:31:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14132187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bagua/pseuds/bagua
Summary: Peridot was fine. No, she was amazing. She was doing great in her classes. She was an electrical Engineer so she knew she was gunna get a good pay check. She was working hard and it was paying off.Her life was going exactly as planned. It was only when she met Lapis Lazuli that she realized, she didn't know who had planned the life she was following so perfectly.





	1. It's Raining

**Author's Note:**

> This is more of a prologue. Future chapters will be much longer.

It was raining. If it wasn't, Peridot would have been outside. She was currently laying on a couch in the student lounge. She would have been studying in the computer lab that only computer and electrical engineers were allowed to enter, but the seniors had taken it up entirely.

This quarter was actually terrible. Not the course work. No, Peridot was smart (No. Peridot would not demean herself as such. She would call herself a genius if she felt like being humble). Peridot’s time schedule was the worst. Peridot had four hours of class time on a good day and yet, on that same day, she was at this stupid college for 9 hours. The three hour gab between two of her classes (five hours on Thursdays since she didn’t have lab) was the root of all her pain. But that was all she could get!

“Excuse me.”

No. Seriously. Peridot would take a 6 o’clock class at this point. It would make her stay way shorter and parking would actually not be a pain. But no. Peridot had to spend another two hours laying on this couch trying to stay awake, so no one stole her stuff. At least there was no class on Fridays. But was it worth it? Really? No. no it was not.

“Excuse me?”

… Peridot snapped out of the internal monologue about her crappy schedule that she only had every day to look up at someone talking to her. No one talks to Peridot.

Peridot looked up to see a girl she didn’t know. Oh no a girl. Peridot was immediately flustered. There were three other girls in her major, all who didn’t mind not getting to know Peridot. So, very smoothly, Peridot flopped about like the loser, said “oh my stars!” out loud, and ended up falling off the couch. “Are you talking to me?” Peridot asked.

The girl chuckled at Peridots fall and Peridot guessed that this wasn’t really happening. It was just another dream in which she actually managed to have a human encounter. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but there are no more chairs available.”

Peridot surveyed the room to confirm that there was, indeed, no seating.

“And I was taking up two seats.” Peridot said.

“It’s ok if you wanna keep lying down, but if you wanted some company, would you mind if I sat next to you?”

Peridot had sat in this lounge for two years now and no one had ever talked to her before…

“Of course! It’s a great opportunity to get to know me.” Yah. That sounds right. She couldn’t say one sentence without sounding super weird and egocentric.

Peridot got up from the ground and moved her stuff to make room for this new person.

She laughed as she sat down. She got comfortable and looked at Peridot. “I’m sure it is.”

Peridot stared at her face. Her smile looked different from her classmate’s smiles. It was interesting.

“I’m Peridot.” Peridot extended her hand for a handshake like the fucking professional she was.

“Lapis” Lapis did indeed shake the hand and then proceeded to melt further into the couch resulting in some atrocious posture but at the same time, looking rather comfortable.

“So Lapis, what is your major.” Ah yes. The basic question all college students must ask when starting any conversation with another college student.

“Business.” That surprised Peridot. She was guessing communications or English or something.

“My major is Electrical Engineering.” Peridot said proudly.

Lapis whistled and replied, “Well then, I must be sitting next to a real smarty.” Lapis was giving Peridot what most would say was a flirtatious smile. Peridot however, would never be one to notice such things.

“You are 100% correct.” Peridot replied with a ridiculously over-sized grin.

Lapis laughed. “So, Peridot. What were you doing before I interrupted?”

“Oh. Just watching an episode of Camp Pining Hearts. I have a lot of time between classes.”

“What is that?”

There was a gasp from Peridot that silenced the entire student lounge for just a second.

“You’ve never seen Camp Pining Hearts!? This is so exciting! One sec!”

Peridot proceeded to pull out her laptop and plug in her earbuds that were previously plugged into her phone.

“Get ready for the best show you have ever seen.” Peridot said trying to position her laptop on her lap so that they could both comfortably see the screen.

Peridot offered one ear bud for Lapis to take. Peridot didn’t notice but, for some reason, Lapis was blushing just the slightest bit at the whole scenario. Lapis didn’t even know why.

“You ready?” Peridot looked expectantly at Lapis.

Lapis took a second to answer but then said, “Let’s do this.”

 


	2. ah-ah

Peridot had a conundrum on her hands. Yesterday, Peridot had a conversation. She had a conversation in which at the end, she exchanged phone number with the other person. Well ok, this has happened to her many times. Those times however, were professional exchanges. This one had no purpose. They did not _need_ to stay in contact. They’re weren’t group partners or something akin to that. The two had exchanged phone numbers… just because.

Now Peridot knew the word she wanted to say at this moment was ‘friend’ but, to be frank, that word scared her. She had never had this type of relationship, well not one that involved force from adults. But, were they even friends? It was one hangout. At most wouldn’t they be acquaintances?

Peridot wasn’t scared of being a ‘friend’. Peridot was perfect at all she did, at least in her mind. She could be best friends with someone easy. It is possible that she had tried in the past and those attempts had ended in “too self-centered” remarks, but Peridot was older now. Wiser. She knew how to listen to her peers. Past Peridot was nothing compared to the new and improved Peridot.

The point is, Peridot had a conundrum on her hands. What was Lapis Lazuli? You know what? All this thinking is pointless. Getting to the point was how Peridot liked to role.

Peridot pulled out her phone, pulled up Lapis’s name, and sent the text

**What are we?**

Ah. Now peridot will know. Genius.

When Lapis replied with **humans** , Peridot burst out laughing. It was funny because it was accurate!

**No no no. Are we friends? Acquaintances? People who told each other they would text soon but then never have another encounter again? What are we?**

**What do you want to be?**

…

What did Peridot want? She never needed a friend. But she could have one. This was her chance.

**We will be friends.**

**Got it ;)**

This was fine. Like all of Peridot’s other friends, Lapis will get annoyed of Peridot and leave. The way the friendship came about was new, but it was inevitably going to be just the same.

\---

Ok. This was it. It was three days since Peridot had texted Lapis. Peridot had a lot of studying ok! She may be a genius but even geniuses need to crack open the book.

Lapis had proposed a get together during the weekend three days ago. Peridot agreed and didn’t find anything to text about after that. They had a plan. They knew where they were meeting up and at what time. Peridot was never good at small talk.

The time was now. Peridot was gunna be cool. She was going to keep this friend. She wasn’t going to talk about Camp Pining Hearts the whole time because that would be weird. She wasn’t going to talk the whole time. She wasn’t going to sweat because its just a casual hangout and there was literally nothing to be concerned about. There was a lot of “wasn’t”s.

But what was she going to do?

“Peridot.” Oh shoot. It was Lapis. Peridot was just going to have to find out during the get together.

“Hey!” Peridot said holding out a hand to shake. Lapis looked amused and shook the hand.

The two were in a coffee shop. It was a place Peridot wrote about all the time in her fanfictions but never actually went to because she hated coffee. But it wasn’t a real college friendship until you have talked over a cup of coffee was it?

Lapis ordered an americano and Peridot ordered a simple iced coffee. She had planned to add as much cream and sugar as physically possible. It was in no way healthy, but it was edible.

The two sat down. It was raining like the day they first met.

“So,” Lapis started after getting comfortable, “How’s it been?”

“Oh good. Just kidding it’s never good. Classes are horrible, and my groupmate is refusing to do his damn share.” Dammit Peridot. It could have stopped after ‘oh good’. “How have you been?”

“Same. Business classes are either boring or difficult or both. There is no other option.” Peridot laughed and confirmed that engineering classes were the same.

“I watched more of Camp Pinning hearts. The rips I got/”

“You watched more!? What part did you get to? How did you watch it? Its from the 80s so it’s going to look bad if you download it from anywhere. They actually just released the DVDs from some sight that sells really old shows. The quality still isn’t that great, but I suggest that you watch it from them. I ripped them all and they are on my computer, so I could just send you the files. Did you get to the scavenger hunt? Who’s your favorite character?” oh no. abort mission.

“Ok. You sound like a professional. It sounds like I’m just going to have to watch it with you.” Lapis smiled. Mission not aborted?

“Ok! Tell me your entire class schedule. Here’s mine.”

Peridot proceeded to tell lapis her schedule for the next couple of minutes. Lapis told Peridot when there off times overlapped and then it was set. They had a plan.

There rest of the hang was spent talking about their other likes and dislikes. They both loved the summer and swimming. That was probably where the similarities ended.

Lapis didn’t really talk about her interests much. She looked content to hear Peridot ramble on about her passions for the next two hours.

The two left and continued to text the rest of the day.

This friendship hang went way better than Peridot was expecting.

Why was Peridot so scared, no not scared, concerned.

Peridot was awesome at friendship.


	3. As If It's Your Last

It has been quite a few months since Peridot had made her only friend.

She has showed Lapis all of Camp Pining Hearts. Lapis mostly watched on Peridot’s computer at the school when they’re schedules matched up and Peridot would work on homework. They weren’t really communicating or even doing the same thing, but the comments Lapis sometimes made were comments Peridot found herself thinking about a lot.

Peridot had been to Lapis’s apartment many times. The first couple of months it was every so often, but at some point, it became Peridot going Lapis’s every day after classes. Lapis had never been to Peridot’s place. She lived 25 minutes away and she lived with her parents. Lapis had asked but Peridot always refused making up some lame excuse Lapis could see through instantly. The true reason was that Peridot’s room looked the exact same as from when she was 12 and frankly, it was embarrassing.

In recent months, it became the norm for Peridot to spend the night at Lapis’s. Lapis’s roommate Jasper would always complain but they didn’t particularly care. Peridot didn’t know why she complained anyways. It was a garbage dump before she showed up. Peridot kept the place clean and actually livable.

Here was the thing. There was one time, the three were watching pool masters or something, (and upon retrospect, Peridot had been leaning maybe too far into Lapis), but Jasper decided she wanted to be more of a jerk than normal decided to say “God. Can you two just fuck already? You guys are getting annoying.” Peridot had yelped and Lapis told her shove off to her room.

The two continued to watch the show, but they were sitting much farther apart and there was a sense of awkwardness in the air. Did Peridot like Lapis? Like that? Sure. Lapis was amazing and beautiful, and Peridot would be lucky to have her. Did she think about it? Yah sometimes. Maybe all the time. But Lapis was so cool! And pretty! And like, Peridot knew that Lapis didn’t like her. She was so plain looking. And she was annoying. Lapis was way out of her league.

That day scared Peridot. It was the first time she had realized that it wasn’t just something she thought about sometimes. Peridot had a genuine crush on her only friend. And she was subconsciously trying to make a move on Lapis. Peridot knew Lapis didn’t feel the same way, so Peridot would just have to get over it.

The only thing was, right now, she was not over it yet. Right now, Jasper was having a little party in the living room, where Peridot usually slept. Right now, Lapis had offered Peridot to sleep in her bed with her. Right now, Peridot, perfectly sober with a car she could drive home that very minute, was panicking. She knew she should go home to respect her friend, but her body physically wouldn’t move. It had this opportunity Peridot could only dream about, and her body physically was not allowing her to pass it up.

“This is fine.” Peridot said although it was only meant to be a thought to reassure herself.

“Glad you think so.” Lapis replied. Peridot stopped moving momentarily not expecting to get a response to her thought.

Lapis owned a full bed so it wasn’t like they were going to be forced to spoon or anything. Peridot could be respectful.

The two got into the bed.

“Hey. I only have this throw blanket in here. My usual blanket is out there but like hell I’m going out there were Jasper’s drunk friends are.” Yah. Peridot wasn’t going to make that trip either.

Peridot got into the bed and Lapis proceeded to spoon her, so that should could share the blanket with peridot. That was the only reason.

Nothing really happened after that. Peridot was stiff as a board. Lapis eventually fell asleep around Peridot. It was safe to say that Peridot did not get much sleep that night.

\---

Peridot was ready for the next step. She had thought it about a lot.

She thought about the night they had shared a bed. It was a night Peridot thinks about a lot. That night was the moment when Peridot knew she was ready. She had figured out what they truly were, and it was time to admit it.

“Lapis.” Peridot said on Lapis’s couch while she was in the kitchen making craft mack and cheese for dinner since Jasper was out and couldn’t complain.

“What’s up Peri?”

“There’s something I need to tell you.” Lapis stopped. She looked concerned and excited at the same time.

She walked out and leaned down to be close to Peridot. “What’s up?”

Peridot turned and looked at Lapis in the eyes. Lapis waited in anticipation.

“You… you’re my best friend.”

…There was a moment of silence from both of them. Lapis suddenly started laughing.

“Why are you laughing!? This is not a humorous moment!” Peridot was mad and red.

“I’m sorry, sorry. You’re my best friend too.” Lapis said going back to the kitchen.

Peridot turned back to her computer no longer mad but still very, very red.

 


End file.
